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Why Do We Quote? The Culture and History of Quotation

This is a rich and engaging work of outstanding scholarship. Scholars in sociolinguistics, literature, and folklore will recognize the importance of the book for their fields. General readers will find it just plain interesting.

—Professor Amy Shuman, Ohio State University

Quoting is all around us. But do we really know what it means? How do people actually quote today, and how did our present systems come about? This book brings together a down-to-earth account of contemporary quoting with an examination of the comparative and historical background that lies behind it and the characteristic way that quoting links past and present, the far and the near.

Drawing from anthropology, cultural history, folklore, cultural studies, sociolinguistics, literary studies and the ethnography of speaking, Ruth Finnegan’s fascinating study sets our present conventions into cross-cultural and historical perspective. She traces the curious history of quotation marks, examines the long tradition of quotation collections with their remarkable recycling across the centuries, and explores the uses of quotation in literary, visual and oral traditions. The book tracks the changing definitions and control of quoting over the millennia and in doing so throws new light on ideas such as 'imitation', 'allusion', 'authorship', 'originality' and 'plagiarism'.

5. Harvesting others’ words: the long tradition of quotation collections

6. Quotation in sight and sound

7. Arts and rites of quoting

8. Controlling quotation: the regulation of others’ words and voices

III. DISTANCE AND PRESENCE

9. What is quotation and why do we do it?

Appendix 1: Quoting the academics

Appendix 2. List of the Mass Observation writers

References

Ruth Finnegan is Visiting Research Professor and Emeritus
Professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Open University
where, as a founder member of the academic staff, she has spent much of
her academic career. With a first degree in classical languages and
literatures (Oxford’s Literae Humaniores)
she moved into anthropology as a graduate and spent several years
conducting fieldwork and teaching in Africa. Her publications have
consistently been inspired by these overlapping literary, historical and
anthropological backgrounds. Her particular interests are in the
anthropology/sociology of artistic activity, communication, and
performance; debates relating to literacy, 'orality' and multimodality;
and amateur and other 'hidden' activities. She has published widely on
aspects of communication and expression, especially oral performance,
literacy, and music-making. She was elected a Fellow of the British
Academy in 1996 and an Honorary Fellow of Somerville College Oxford in
1997; and was awarded an OBE for services to Social Sciences in 2000 and the Rivers Memorial medal by the Royal Anthropological Institute in 2016.

Publications, rooted in cultural anthropology but also drawing on a range of disciplinary traditions, include: Limba Stories and Story-Telling 1967, 1981; Oral Literature in Africa, 1970 (a new, revised edition of Oral Literature in Africa published by OBP is available here); Modes of Thought (joint ed.), 1973; Oral Poetry,1977 (2nd edn 1992); Information Technology: Social Issues (joint ed.), 1987; Literacy and Orality: Studies in the Technology of Communication, 1988; The Hidden Musicians: Music-Making in an English Town 1989 (2nd edn 2007); Oral Traditions and the Verbal Arts 1992; South Pacific Oral Traditions (joint ed.),1995; Tales of the City: A Study of Narrative and Urban Life,1998; Communicating: The Multiple Modes of Human Interconnection, 2002; Participating in the Knowledge Society: Researchers Beyond the University Walls (ed.), 2005; and The Oral and Beyond: Doing Things with Words in Africa,2007.

A short dip into my
own personal encounter with quoting/quotation in study, home and street to
introduce examples and issues gently, and hopefully relate in an accessible and
engaging way to readers’ similar (or contrasting) encounters. 3-4 illustrations
of visually displayed quotations.

2. Tastes of the present: the here and now of quoting

This and the
following chapter lay out the major case study which the later chapters take as
their point of departure. Building on the tradition of the ethnography of speaking
and writing, they track how quoting is in practice utilized, signalled and
regarded among present-day users in (mainly) south central England in the early
21st century. It is based both on personal participant observation
and (extensively) on comments and reflections by some two hundred volunteer
commentators from a panel who write regularly for the Mass Observation Archive
(University of Sussex). They exemplify and discuss their quoting from so-called
‘official’ quotations (like Shakespeare, the Bible or classic literary works),
to proverbs, songs, family sayings, personal conversations or the latest
catchwords from TV shows. The more comparative and historical chapters of Part
II are thus illuminated not only by the practices reported by these commentators
but also by the insights, emotions and personal engagements that they convey,
and the (sometimes unexpected) issues they raise. 4 illustrations

Continues the case
study of the previous chapter, raising further issues and complexities. 1
illustration

Signalling quotation

When to quote and how

To quote or not to quote

So why quote?

IIBEYOND THE HERE AND NOW

[digging into some
historical and comparative background to put Part I’s findings in perspective]

4. Quotation marks present, past, and future

Quotations marks,
easy just to take for granted, have a more complex and varied history than
usually realised, one which to an extent shapes our usages – and puzzles -
today. The chapter notes the huge variety of quote signals, with their
inconsistencies and uncertainties (several already noted by the British
commentators of chapter 3), and starts from one specific example (a passage
from the New Testament) to illustrate some of the differences over the years.
It then goes back to explore the early origins and development of our present
system, starting with the Greek arrow-shaped diple and tracing its
development and changing usages over many centuries, not least the contrasting
approaches to what was meant by quoting and whose words counted. Later
developments in the European novel added to the complexity, with the
intermingling of ‘direct’ and ‘indirect’ speech and recognition of ‘free
indirect speech’. Far from being neutral graphic symbols, the signalling of
‘quotation’, in its various senses, links into changing ideologies and debates
about the social and cosmic order, the nature of ‘originality’, and what it is
to be a human being. 10-11 illustrations (especially important in this chapter)

What are quote marks and where did they come from?

What do they mean?

Do we need them?

5. Harvesting others’ words:
the long tradition of quotation collections

Collections of
quotations rather seldom figure in the histories of literature, yet humans have
compiled and valued them for millennia, dating back to Sumerian proverb
collections in ancient Mesopotamia. Here is a different strand in the treatment
of others’ words which carves them out decisively, complementing the strategy
of marking them by quotation signals within a longer text. This chapter again
starts with one particular example – the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, the iconic collection most frequently
mentioned by the British commentators – then goes back through earlier
collections to exemplify the changes, contrasts and continuities, focusing
mainly on four mini-case studies: Macdonnel’s A Dictionary of Quotations in
Most Frequent Use. Taken from the Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, and Italian
Languages; Translated into English (1797 with many later editions and
pirated copies, in both Europe and America); the successive editions of
Erasmus’ famous Adages from 1500 onwards, of (eventually) over 4000
quotations from classical Greek and Latin authors, a best seller for centuries;
Thomas of Ireland’s Manipulus florum in the early 14th
century, ordered with amazing efficiency as source book for preachers; and
Cato’s Distichs, a collection of Latin moralistic epigrams, probably
from the 3rd-4th century AD and still a school text in
the 18th century. The popularity and longevity of such collections
is remarkable, so too is the striking continuity of certain quotations,
repeated down the centuries as compilers mined their predecessors: a long
tradition lay behind the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. 8
illustrations to exemplify layout and title pages etc.

A present-day example: TheOxford Dictionary of Quotations

Forerunners in the written western tradition

Where did they come from?

Why collect quotations?

6. Quotation in sight and sound

So far the examples
have focused on written forms, but this chapter raises the question of whether
quotation necessarily depends on writing (as some have argued) and illustrates
how others’ words and voices can be and are drawn on in oral settings and can
be enhanced in performance, sometimes in notably complex ways. Musical
quotation is discussed briefly, followed by a more extensive account of pictorial
dimensions such as the role of calligraphy and image in staging quotation, the
books of illustrated proverbs popular since at least the 15th
century, and the famous proverb pictures by Brueghel and other Dutch painters.
6 or 7 illustrations, specially important for the final section.

Quoting and writing – inseparable twins?

The wealth of oral quotation

Quoting blossoms in performance

Music, script and image

7.Arts and rites of quoting

Quotation,
imitation, tradition, allusion, model, reminiscence – these are recurrent
themes in the study of literature, of ritual and of culture. But they are
differently defined, practised and recognised in differing settings, and many
differing if related terms are drawn on by both practitioners and analysts.
This chapter sketches some of the many ways others’ words and voices have been
richly and subtly drawn on, under varying headings, in such frameworks as
narrative, rhetoric, exposition, ‘poetry’, ritual, and play. This is further
illustrated through a range of specific examples, from Virgilian epic and the
long-lived Japanese waka poetry where old material is lovingly re-used
in living poetry over the centuries, to south Slavic ‘oral-formulaic’ epic, twentieth-century
Ghanaian novelists, Yoruba praise chants, Kuna oratory, the quotation-drenched
genre of contemporary academic writing, T. S. Eliot, and the lyrics of Bob
Dylan. The shifting and elusive boundaries of what counts as quoting in some or
all of its many senses, and the changing yet overlapping practices and
interpretations over the centuries help to explain why many people – including
the Mass Observation commentators – are both actively engaged in this deeply
creative set of human practices and uncertain about just how to interpret or
define it. 3 illustrations

Frames
for others’ words and voices

An array of quoting arts

How do the thousand flowers
grow and who savours them?

8. Controlling quotation:
the social regulation of others’ words and voices

Quoting is not
always approved, or not in all situations (there were unexpectedly strong
sentiments on this among the Mass Observation commentators): like any other
powerful human activity it is socially controlled and shaped. This chapter traces
(briefly) some key historical developments relating to such concepts and
practices as ownership, imitation, copyright, and plagiarism, together with the
varying social patterns and arguments (and in some cases contradictions) over
who is allowed or not allowed to quote, from what authorities, how, to whom and
in what circumstances – and how far this is or should be affected by changing
technologies. The topic remains highly controversial – quoting is too mighty a
force, it seems, to be allowed to run free - and continues to arouse passionate
debate today. 3-4 illustrations

Who plants and guards the flowers? Imitation, authors and
plagiarism

Constraining and allowing quotation: who and how?

What is a flower, what a weed?

IIIDISTANCE AND
PRESENCE

9.What is quotation and why do we do it?

This first returns
to the opening example (the English ‘here andnow’) – one particular case, culturally and historically specific, but
not only in itself heterogeneous but also with conventions in part shaped by earlier
historical traditions. Goes on to discuss the difficult issues of the
identification and characteristics of using others’ words and voices, the dual
nature of quotation (past and present; here and distant/absent; one’s own and
not one’s own). and of why, eventually, humans quote

So
what is it?

The
far and near of human texts and voices

Why
quote?

Appendix: Quoting the
academics

This has two
functions: 1) a bit of the obligatory scholarly referencing and abstraction
(thus making it possible to bypass this in the introductory chapters), at the
same time as 2) exemplifying this genre of writing / quoting: a heavy use of
others’ words but with the current author’s scholarly voice both distancing and
claiming them; also additionally 3) some further details about the Mass
Observation commentators of Chapters 2 and 3 (probably with a list as Appendix
2)

Ruth Finnegan discusses Open Access and the future of academic publishing on Open University's Platform. She predicts that "the long reign of the weighty academic tome is nearing its end". You can read her full article here.

The anthropologist Ruth Finnegan’s study testifies to the sheer
diversity of motives people have had and still have for quoting, and to
the surprising variety of forms that quotations take and have taken,
throughout history and across cultures ... A matter of particular
interest to students and critics of literature emerges in chapter 6, in
Finnegan’s discussion of oral performance. Because one can signal
quotation in oral performance by shifts of tone, gesture, and
inflection, a speaker can suggest that certain words are held at a
greater distance than others, with different attitudes towards those
words held nearer and further away, so that there exists in oral
performance a ‘gradient of quotedness’ ... The power of her study’s
central principle is that it does not reduce all human communication to a
uniform, single practice; it does not imply that all words or voices
are the same. The principle of a gradient insists upon diversity as the
essential characteristic of quotation. The strength of Finnegan’s study
as a whole is the way in which it testifies to the principle’s truth by
the sheer variety of quotations and quoting practices that she
showcases, describes, and analyses.

— Owen Boynton, Essays in Criticism 62 (2012)

Written for a broad readership by a respected scholar of, among other things, oral literature, Why Do We Quote?
is above all an eminently enjoyable read. [...] If the main part of the
book is blissfully rich in data past and present, woven together
through Finnegan’s meaningful analytic voice, she opts not to bow to but
make visible the scholarship that has been devoted to facets of quoting
and footnoting in an appendix entitled "Quoting the Academics” [...]
The added benefit: Finnegan does not just sketch how this terrain has
been researched, but she also elaborates on how she would characterize
her own approach vis-ŕ-vis these others, claiming a place for her
mixture of ethnographic, literary, and historical perspectives that is
indeed unique — and that should be appealing to folklorists and
ethnographers of communication.

— Regina Bendix, Journal of Folklore Research (28 Sept 2011)
You can read the full review here

Quotation, with its bedfellows imitation and allusion, is at least as
old as written civilisation. Through ever-increasing distances from the
present and the personal, this book from the innovative Open Book
Publishers (it can be read online for free) works through the thicket
surrounding the verbal and grammatical mechanics of quoting. It has
enlightening things to say about the Western tradition of compiling
books of quotations. [...]
Finnegan offers analyses of proverbs, storytelling and the rich
intricacy that signals spoken quotation that do much to illuminate the
complexity of oral communication. The verbal realisation of quotation is
the core concern of the volume, which crosses academic and cultural
disciplines with effectiveness and confidence.

— Colin Higgins, Times Higher Education (1 Sept 2011)
If you subscribe to the Times, you can read the full review here.

In a highly interesting and well done book in the category of cultural nonfiction, Why Do We Quote? The Near and Far of Others' Words and Voices by author Ruth Finnegan is a worthwhile read. Pulling from anthropology, cultural history, folklore, cultural studies, socio-linguistics, literary studies, and the ethnography of speaking, the book provides an absolutely fascinating look at why people in our society quote others and how we do it. The book also serves as an excellent study into ideas like imitation, allusion, authorship, originality and plagiarism, and will make readers think deeply into our framework for why we think the way we do about quoting and our use of quotations. This book is both entertaining and educational, and readers will enjoy it from start to finish.
I must admit, when I looked at Why Do We Quote? The Near and Far of Others' Words and Voices, my first thought was, "A whole book about quotations? How is that possible? And how could it be interesting?" But I was certainly surprised by author Ruth Finnegan's excellent work. Her work is amazing in that it presents form and usage of speech in a highly interesting fashion, and her style of historical inquiry into the topic almost makes one feel as if you are reading a whodunit mystery. I was drawn into this book from the very beginning, and enjoyed it so thoroughly that I read the whole thing in only a few sittings. I highly recommend Why Do We Quote? to any reader looking for a unique and interesting book with a wonderful historical perspective. I look forward to reading more from author Ruth Finnegan as soon as I can, and hope that she is hard at work on her next book!

— Chris Fischer

Why Do We Quote? by Ruth Finnegan is a book on the history of quotations and how these were used since the beginning of literature. This book is definitely a great help for students who study literature and are working on their research reports. Apart from that, Finnegan talks about who uses quotations and how they do it in their respective fields. She is tracing the history of quotations and how they became what they are today. It was very interesting to read about quotations. You might think that this subject matter would be boring, but it is not. Finnegan keeps us entertained with her dry sense of humor and quality written material. You cannot question her research because she has covered every single aspect of it and backed her theories with solid arguments. I wish I'd had a reference book like this when I was working on my research thesis. Finnegan actually gives us so much more than simple quotations. She also talks about things that plague research students, such as the modern concepts of plagiarism and the originality of content and an idea. As research work is becoming far reaching and everyone and anyone is producing research on any given topic, this book will help students in deciding on their topics and making sure that their work remains "original” and not a "plagiarised idea.” I would recommend this book to students who want some guidance in their research work.

— Rabia Tanveer

Why Do We Quote?: The Near and Far of Others' Words and Voices by Ruth Finnegan is an engaging book that speaks about quoting, and the tradition of quoting during public speaking and writing essays. Quoting and quotations have flourished in written forms for many centuries now. Though quoting in writing is common, oral quotation is also significant in speeches, poetry readings, proverbs, catchphrases, and many more. The book speaks about the conventions of oral quoting, which is learned informally, while written quoting is well-recognized in practice and has a powerful position. The author's demarcation of oral and written quoting is interesting to read and learn. The book will be useful to all those associated with literature as it gives them an idea on how to use the words and voices of others while expressing their thoughts. It's also the sort of book that many types of readers will enjoy. Why do we quote? The book states that the use of quotation is not new. The background to our practice of quoting is vast and goes back centuries, showing how many a time our speeches are filled with others' words.
I found the book highly interesting. It makes one ponder about the use of quotation and it's a book that all English language lovers will enjoy reading. The book also shows an interesting point in the approaches to language and writing, and it also demonstrates the dominant practices when it comes to education, speech, and writing.

—Mamta Madhavan

Why Do We Quote? by Ruth Finnegan is a book on the history of quotations and how these were used since the beginning of literature. This book is definitely a great help for students who study literature and are working on their research reports. Apart from that, Finnegan talks about who uses quotations and how they do it in their respective fields. She is tracing the history of quotations and how they became what they are today. It was very interesting to read about quotations. You might think that this subject matter would be boring, but it is not. Finnegan keeps us entertained with her dry sense of humor and quality written material. You cannot question her research because she has covered every single aspect of it and backed her theories with solid arguments. I wish I'd had a reference book like this when I was working on my research thesis.
Finnegan actually gives us so much more than simple quotations. She also talks about things that plague research students, such as the modern concepts of plagiarism and the originality of content and an idea. As research work is becoming far reaching and everyone and anyone is producing research on any given topic, this book will help students in deciding on their topics and making sure that their work remains "original” and not a "plagiarised idea.” I would recommend this book to students who want some guidance in their research work.